“The Plastic Brain” Egychology’s Second Event in the GUC

Edited by: Farah Hatem

On Saturday the 24th of February, the founder of Egychology, Ahmed Samir, came to the GUC for the second time, two years after his first event called “You Shall Not Pass”. The event was launched only 3 days beforehand; however, it reached a lot of people.

The event was hosted by Nawwar, under the title of “The Plastic Brain”. This name was chosen because the main topic discussed was Neuroplasticity. Can a damaged brain change its own structure and learn to compensate the lost functions? That was the question of the talk.

Neuroplasticity, as Ahmed Samir explained, is regulating neurons to perform the function of other dysfunctional ones. In other words, it is the brain adapting to change over time. Lost neurons cannot be generated again. Unfortunately, this fact is responsible for most of the incurable diseases that people suffer from. According to Neuroplasticity, the brain can restore its lost functions by practicing and this can absolutely make a huge difference in our lives.

Even though it hasn’t yet, neuroplasticity can be able to cure difficult conditions of paralysis in the future, giving people hope that it is never too late for a change as the brain itself can,-too-, change.

Samir’s talk took 40 minutes and the audience was very interactive, with a time for Q&As at the end, and anyone who wanted to take photos. Mentioning the surprise that Ahmed Samir announced on his Twitter account, was a photo of himself when he was just a 6-year-old boy.

Ahmed Samir mentioned the story of Cheryl Schiltz, whose case was a proof of this theory, whom he also referred to parts of her story as miracles. Cheryl was a perpetually falling woman who was suffering for years from that disease until she underwent an experiment where she put a vestibular apparatus on her head that sent pulses to her brain. They found that the duration of her being balanced without falling is directly proportional to the duration of the steadiness of the apparatus on her head which meant that her neurons are trained to take over the lost functions.

The event witnessed a remarkable number of attendees, queuing for more than 30 minutes before the event’s official starting time, proving that the GUC is full of intellectual minds who are always hungry for Science. The feedback was very good about the event on social media as some attendees shared their experience on Twitter and Facebook and Ahmed Samir himself reshared or commented on them.

What is worth mentioning about the event, was that it marked the last event for Ahmed Samir before traveling back to Canada to continue his masters! This growing popularity of Ahmed Samir comes from his outstanding videos of Egychology, that unlock the interesting side of science in a different way that everyone could understand!